Reminiscing the Memories and Treasuring New Ones
by NaLu.1996
Summary: On one cold winter's morning, Lucy discovers one of the most important treasures closest to her heart. It is a photo album that she and her parents made a long way back. Back when they were still alive, back before Lucy joined Fairy Tail. "Just then she feels a hand on her shoulder..." Please review everyone! Would appreciate it very much!


It is only 8.30 in the morning, but Lucy is already up and refreshed from a quick shower. Today she decides not to hang out at the guild today because the weather is getting far too chilly to go outside. Instead she will be staying indoors, at home. And probably spend the entirety of the day pampering and beautifying.

Walking out into her bedroom in a faded oversized T-shirt that reaches to her knees like a dress (there is a fire burning at the hearth, thus making the whole house cosy and comfortably warm), Lucy suddenly spots a strange, tattered book sticking out visibly in a pile of manuscripts on her bookshelf.

Thinking an eyesore, she decides to investigate. She carefully pulls it out, then gasps as tears well up in her russet brown eyes. Because on the cover of the book is the title, reading: **_With Our Lucky Daughter_**. Lucy realises that it isn't some sort of unwanted accounts book she planned to throw away earlier but forgot to do so. It is actually her and her parents' dearly cherished family photo album.

7 years – no, 14 years – have passed so far since she last read this with them. Her Mama and father, huh? She remembers how they used to cluster together on the large futon sofa in the living room, peacefully undisturbed from any disruptions, flicking through the pages while laughing at the scenes in the photographs. Everything just seems so nostalgic.

Of course, all her friends at Fairy Tail have been the best friends she has ever had. They are kind, warm, welcoming, supportive and loyal. Lucy knows she can depend on them whenever she is in need of help, assistance, and they know she'll do the same in return. They are like family to her. But, despite all the happy and even sad times she shared with the rest, she still feels a little lonely.

She misses her beloved deceased mother, father and younger sister Michelle. Not to mention the servants especially Mrs Spetto as well as the rest of the staff who once worked at the Heartfilia Mansion. Everything just won't be the same, will it? She plops onto her bed and begins to browse through the pages.

There is a photo of her; aged 7, in Layla's motherly arms, both grinning for the camera. Behind them is the ocean, sparkling in the radiant afternoon sun like a sea of gems. That day she and her mother went for a picnic and a swim at The Blissful Crab beach, one of the most beautiful, most stunning places in the world. Just those two. Her father Jude Heartfilia had important affairs to attend to.

Like all the young ones her age, Lucy waddled into the rock pool where she studied all the pretty, assorted coloured shells she found and attempting to grab every small fish that swam between her skinny short legs. Layla laughed at the innocent, adorable curiosity of the world beyond that her daughter possessed.

Another photo depicts young Lucy running around on the sand after she tried to approach a seagull at his lunch. Lucy recalls spraining her ankle due to haste. Not a severe injury but Layla still tended to her like a skilful nurse. Lucy observed as her young, beautiful mother tenderly clasped Lucy's little foot in her gentle hands, wrapping bandages around her ankle.

Never had Lucy seen anyone so beautiful in her short life. Layla wasn't just her mother; she was her protector, her dearest companion and she would've even considered her Mama as her only best friend – had she known what a best friend was – whom she told everything to and did everything with. The death of somebody so precious was truly an awful tragedy, an unbelievable loss, an extremely traumatic event that has scarred Lucy ever since.

Over the pages are other memorable pictures pasted onto the pages. Vividly decorated with glitter and sequins, they really do bring joy to Lucy's heart. She inspects another photo; instead of being bordered by pink wax roses (as most of them are) this one is fringed with pressed pansies of every colour of the rainbow and miniature stars and planets.

Present in the photo are Jude and Lucy as an infant, give or take three months after her birth. In here her father gently nuzzles baby Lucy, who is fast sleep, dreaming of a future crammed full of endless hope and happiness for his newborn daughter. On his face is a look of joyful melancholy Lucy is unfamiliar with.

Father and daughter's relationship used to be a cold one: as unstable, rocky, and jagged, as the mountains in the western coast of Fiore whom no one dares to go near. It wasn't until Lucy returned home with Tenrou Group after a 7 year-long slumber on Fairy Tail's holy ground, Sirius Island, that she realised her love for him.

Her eyes water and she wipes them away impatiently. As she continues to turn the pages and as the reminiscences from 14 long years ago amalgamate in her mind, Lucy – completely without thinking – utters a prosaic verse she makes up on the spot:

_Listen closely, darling one._

_Can you hear them?_

_Our stars, the ones that scatter_

_The black void blanketing the world,_

_Harmonises the godly sonnet_

_Of the Holy Heavens._

_Outside, yes, I sense it, I feel it._

_The sentimentality of the dewdrops;_

_The half moonlight caressing_

_My tingling skin._

_The woebegone, weeping rain laments,_

_Shedding tears of a thousand years._

_Zephyrus carries faith on his ethereal body;_

_He speaks my mind, he speaks my soul._

_Come, darling one:_

_Let the pirouetting Northern lights arouse you,_

_Let the deceiving shadows comfort you._

After humming this beautiful piece of an elegy, the poet explodes into a shower of grief, sorrow. Even when she wants to take a break, calm herself and be resilient, the tears won't stop. She cries herself to sleep and by the time she wakes up, happy as though nothing has happened, it is already 6 o'clock in the afternoon. The first thing she sees is the photo album, clutched in her hands and her good mood is replaced by another wave of fresh tears.

Just then, she feels a hand on her shoulder. Warm and consoling, it assures her that nothing bad will ever happen... Almost like her mother's. Lucy gasps in disbelief, turning to face the owner of the hand. Disappointed, she realises it is only Natsu and isn't going to bother telling him off for intruding into her room.

"Why are you crying, Lucy?" he asks her.

Lucy didn't answer and looks away, embarrassed that he has seen her crying. "I-It's nothing. I'm fine. Just hay fever..." she mutters. The fib sounds lame, even to herself.

"How can it be hay fever when it's winter?" Natsu points out. "Come on, what's the matter? Are you hurting? Is somebody threatening you…?"

"_Family_…?" he says lastly.

With that, Lucy's mouth trembles with a magnitude of 10 and eventually she bursts like a bloated balloon.

"L-Lucy?" The said person fails to respond.

"I-I'm sorry, Natsu…" Lucy chokes between tears, shocking him.

"Sorry? What for, Lucy?"

"I just can't help being so… So _stupid_," she answers. She dries her tears, and catches her hideous reflection in the mirror. Her nose is running, her eyes are swollen. Scoffing, she puts on a brave smile, but even that can't fool Natsu – the only one person who cares about her most in the entire universe.

"Look at me, Natsu. I'm pathetic."

Heart dropping to the wooden floor and shattering in a thousand pieces, he suddenly kneels down and embraces her. Astonished by this action, Lucy's body heat increases in temperature whilst her cheeks turn a pretty shade of magenta pink – and it isn't the effect of the fire in the fireplace either!

"_Never_ say that about yourself…" Natsu whispers into her neck.

Lucy's eyes widen in surprise: "W-What?" His head bent down to hide the tears in his own eyes, Natsu pulls away but those hands of his grasp Lucy's shoulders firmly, refusing to let go.

"**NEVER AGAIN**!" he demands. "_Never_ say anything negative about yourself, do you hear me Lucy?! I don't ever want to hear it from anybody, especially from you!"

The tears return in Lucy's eyes as she watches her Fire Dragon Slayer best friend Natsu Dragneel breaking down himself. "I beg of you, Lucy. Do it for me, alright? I don't want you to go through what you just did, ever again. Do you hear me? I'd rather die in the most painful way countless times than to see the most precious person to me suffering…"

Lucy can't think of anything to say. Absolutely nothing to respond to what he said at that moment.

Natsu. The Natsu Dragneel – the dumbest guy there ever is to walk the earth, a guy whom she thought is too dense about the ways of love (and not just any love. Well, you know what I mean) – just called her: **_The Most Precious Person to Me _**[a.k.a: her, Lucy Heartfilia, is the No. 1 Most Important Person in the Whole Wide World to Natsu Dragneel].

So in response, she sends him the most charming smile he has ever seen on Lucy's pretty little face. Grinning back, Natsu reaches over to wipe those tears away – gently, carefully, _lovingly_ as though she is a porcelain figure too fragile, too special, to break – helps her up and gazes into her glistening coffee bean eyes (**Kya! He's still holding her hands after pulling her to her feet!**).

"I promised you once, didn't I?" he reminds her. "We're – I'm – here for you. Wherever you go, wherever you are, we'll always be there for you. So come on! The guild's holding some sort of weird evening dance-off and you're missing out!"

Ten minutes later Lucy and Natsu are heading in the direction of the guild Fairy Tail in silence, but acknowledging each other's presence. Both are dressed in their finest midwinter formal outfit. Or maybe it's just Lucy, who is wearing a stunning knee-length shirred satin-bow dress even though she is trembling to death because of the Artic weather.

Lucy aches desperately to cuddle up to Natsu, so she can feel his intense body heat toasting her insides to keep her warm. Wish granted. He shyly pulls the girl so close to him that she can feel his heartbeat, at the same time placing his arm around her shoulders. Lucy is almost close to tears: this is exactly what Layla Heartfilia used to do every time her daughter caught hot-and-cold flashes and Lucy would recover with the click of a finger. So as the two wizards make their way to Fairy Tail, a thought simultaneously comes to both their minds:

"Maybe I do like him/her after all…"

Natsu watches "The No. 1 Most Important Person to Him" – who might even eventually become his wife sometime soon! – without her realising, and smirks to himself. Tomorrow he will ask her why it is he gets that churning sensation in his stomach every time she touches him or even looks at him… Because really, she needs to know. She just has to know what it is he is feeling now is real and will last forever just like a plastic rose:

**Love** ❤


End file.
